Unidentified Aquatic Creature Caught on Camera in Ohio

Reports of mysterious and unidentified creatures are fairly common, but it’s much rarer for eyewitnesses to actually get them on camera (not to mention the fact that many cryptids have a seemingly magical ability to render all photographs blurry or cause cameras to malfunction). That all changed this week in Akron, Ohio as wildlife experts are searching for a bizarre-looking aquatic animal caught on camera this week in a local fishing pond.

The animal was spotted by Akron resident Jeremy Durant, who posted the footage to Facebook. That post has since been removed, but luckily local news stations picked up the story. See the video for yourself as reposted by News5 Cleveland. Durant reports he was near the shore of Little Turtle Pond when he noticed something strange. Upon reaching the shore of the pond, Durant heard a loud splash, and that’s when he saw it.

Strange shapes poking out of bodies of water are fairly common sources of reported cryptid sightings.

In the footage, part of a grayish or greenish creature can be seen languidly flopping around in the muddy waters of the pond. Only part of the creature can be seen so it’s ultimately tough to make out what it might be, but it appears to be fairly large and long. Durant thinks the creature could be a large reptile, asking an unseen companion “is that an alligator, bro?” in the video, but local wildlife officials aren’t so sure.

In response to the video, representatives for Summit Metro Parks who oversee the pond issued a statement claiming that the local Chief of Conservation “ believes it depicts a large fish that is dying. It does not appear to be an alligator. Summit Metro Parks conservation staff will make a site visit tomorrow to confirm.” Naturally, parks officials wouldn’t want everyone freaking out over an alligator on the loose so far north of their usual habitat, so it makes sense they would immediately disregard this theory.

American Alligator

So, what are we left with? Like in most sightings of anomalous or unidentified creatures, we have a few seconds of ambiguous footage showing an indistinguishable but very clearly living beast in a pond. Is this merely a large dying fish, or could something truly mysterious have been caught on camera?

We’ll likely never know. Still, many of the seemingly small bodies of water dotted throughout the American landscape are connected by subterranean waterways, so there’s no telling what could pop up on camera in any old turtle pond any day of the week. Dr. Seuss said it best in the obscure early work McElligot’s Pool: